Hey guys, I am new to the forum, so please be kind and treat me like the ignorant, uneducated person that I am.

I am looking to purchase a waterproof camcorder for recording the sports activities I am involved in(Surfing, Snowboarding, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Etc.), and the vacations I embark on. I found these 2: Sanyo VPC-E1 and Panasonic SDR-SW20 - and have noticed one major difference.

Sanyo records using an ISO standard MPEG-4 AVC H.264 (.MP4) format
and the
Panasonic records using MPEG2 (Motion Picture) format.
(I'm not really sure what either of these are by the way)

I want the best quality obviously, but would like to know which one is best for transferring onto my pc and dvds?

Any help and/or suggestions would be awesome!!! Thanks!!

ok, 84 views and not one response? did i do something wrong or post my question the wrong way? does not one person know what im talking about?

Hi, I'm using a JVC HD7 which (with a bit of effort records to Mpeg2) and a Sanyo HD1 which records to MP4.
MP4 is useful because it is highly compressed and because the Sanyo uses SD cards so file size is at a premium. The negative is that the higher the compression the lower the quality.
I use the JVC for "serious" work and the Sanyo for "Fun" i.e. hangs onn a suction bracket on the bonnet of my car, mounted into a grass tracking Mini (on race days) etc.
The solid state of the Sanyo reduces the risk of internal damage.
Summary, for sports use any solid state camcorder will do (but it will record to MP4) but if you intend treating it gently go for a HDD or mini-disc camcorder recording to mpeg2.
Hope it all makes sense
Regards

Tony